“We went to Celtic Park and beat them twice in two weeks – one of the games had been postponed earlier in the season – and Mark scored in a 3-1 win. That’s the way you do it. And Niall is the same.

“I would say Mark is the best comparison to what people are saying about Niall now.

“And Aberdeen are due to go to Parkhead next month – so Niall knows what to do now.

“If he goes to Parkhead and scores two like Mark did in an Aberdeen win then you could safely say no Dons fan will have any issue with him.”

Miller doesn’t see any reason for McGinn to cop flak for going to the Celtic match, the club he grew up supporting and where he moved to from Derry City when Gordon Strachan was in charge of the Hoops.

The last Aberdeen captain to lead the club to the title said: “Considering his background I don’t see too much wrong with him going to the Celtic game and I don’t think Niall is the type of person where he’d let it interfere with his focus.

“I can understand where the fans are coming from but to be perfectly honest it happens all the time. Niall has proven to the Aberdeen fans he’s totally committed to them.

“There is a bit of necessary understanding required. It won’t happen with all fans but I think the majority of fans will understand the circumstances.

Aberdeen star Niall McGinn is pictured in with the Celtic fans at Rugby Park with Anthony Stokes (Image: Twitter)

“Josh Magennis is of course a former team-mate of Niall’s and he’s at Kilmarnock so for all we know he could have been watching him. But even if it’s because of his Celtic background I don’t see an issue with it.

“It’s not going to affect Niall. It would be different if he wasn’t on form and the fans were questioning his ability.

“After the way he has played the last two seasons he has earned the respect of the fans.

“He was at the game but I don’t think he should suffer for it. Irrespective of the reason we’ve got to be a little bit sensible about the situation.”

McGinn and Stokes were pictured together but Miller admits Aberdeen players of his era had a healthy respect for their rivals at the Old Firm.

He said: “The Aberdeen players in my day didn’t have an issue with Old Firm players – it was just Daily Record reporters! Remember the west-coast bias?

“Seriously, we never had a problem with Rangers or Celtic players. I took Roy Aitken as my assistant when I was manager at Aberdeen.

“There was a whole heap of Rangers and Celtic players we got on with off the park. You’ve got to respect them.

“It didn’t stop us in any way going down and knocking lumps out of them on a regular basis but I think that respect has been there for a lot of years.”